The New Englanders were so keen to land that they ran
some danger of falling into complete disorder. But
Pepperrell managed very cleverly. Seeing that some
Frenchmen were ready to resist a landing on Flat Point,
two miles south-west of Louisbourg, he made a feint
against it, drew their fire, and then raced his boats
for Freshwater Cove, another two miles beyond. Having
completely outdistanced the handful of panting Frenchmen,
he landed in perfect safety and presently scattered them
with a wild charge which cost them about twenty in killed,
wounded, and prisoners. Before dark two thousand Provincials
were ashore. The other two thousand landed at their
leisure the following day.

The next event in this extraordinary siege is one of the
curiosities of war. On May 14 the enthusiastic Vaughan
took several hundreds of these newly landed men to the
top of the nearest hillock and saluted the walls with
three cheers. He then circled the whole harbour, keeping
well inland, till he reached the undefended storehouses
on the inner side of the North-East Harbour, a little
beyond the Royal Battery. These he at once set on fire.
The pitch, tar, wood, and other combustibles made a
blinding smoke, which drifted over the Royal Battery and
spread a stampeding panic among its garrison of four
hundred men. Vaughan then retired for the night. On his
return to the Royal Battery in the morning, with only
thirteen men, he was astounded to see no sign of life
there. Suspecting a ruse, he bribed an Indian with a